Allegations of corruption at NetOne first emerged after information on procurement improprieties was presented to the NetOne board by its chief finance officer, Sibusisiwe Ndlovu. The allegations included advance payments for services that were sometimes not delivered, weak accountability and a failure to enforce procedures on transactions.[1].

Earlier, in 2013, a supplier of telecommunications equipment, Tafadzwa Muguti, sued NetOne and Huawei for the improper award of a tender to Huawei by NetOne. Huawei was awarded a US $218 million tender to upgrade the NetOne network to LTE in July 2013. Muguti argued that Huawei had not gone through the official tender process and that Zimbabwe’s State Procurement Board had expressed concerns over an inflated price for the project.[2] The case was later dismissed after Muguti failed to appear for a court session in Harare in February 2014.[3]